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Sunday, 9 April 2017

Dumfries 2016 - The Main Battles

The second part of the weekend was split into two large battles, the first set at Ripon in northern England where MacKay, Hamilton and Ruvigny faced the Jacobite forces led by St Ruhe, Waunchope and Dundee.

Jacobite start point at Ripon

Some mean clansmen!

My Huguenots had a great view of this one. In fact they spent nearly the entire engagement sat on a hill watching the Irish and Scots massacre each other over a small piece of England.

St Ruhe played by Les Rumble was following the same strategy as the Huguenot's watching his Irish allies martyr themselves on the resilient Williamite lines.

The French seemed reluctant to get involved

As ever with war games some amusing results came up, the most incongruous being when the elite clansmen of Lochaber were seen off by the military equivalent of three shepherdesses and a goat herder.

The brave lads of Shropshire

The cunning machinations of Mr Bill Robertson (MacKay) saw first the troops of Bonnie Dundee (Jim Wallace wearing that particular bonnet) agree to no longer engage the Williamites (through the time honoured ancient communication method of SMS) but also for the Jacobite right flank to retire by simply pointing out that they potentially faced encirclement.

The French finally engage

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A picture says a thousand words, Dundee and St Ruhe

A victory then to the noble forces of William.

Proof (if blurry) that the Huguenots did come part way down the hill

On the other table things did not go so well for the Williamites, which is good old fashioned understatement for they were absolutely mollicated at what has become known as the battle of Badon Hill. Big political machinations in this one with betrayal by the perfidious Kirk leading to a complete collapse of the Willliamite cause.

Jacobite lines at Badon

The Williamite lines

Williamite cannon

Things get complicated

And messy...

This is a rushed dispatch, I say rushed but what I mean is since these battles were fought another weekender has taken place. Unlike other events the April 2017 one was a direct follow on to this one with many of the same shady characters resuming their roles as even shadier characters. More of which later...